Treatment of Barbiturate Intoxication: With a Report of Recent Experience at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital

Abstract

The chief modes of treatment currently advocated for barbiturate intoxication are conservative or supportive management (1), dialytic therapy (2), and the "Scandinavian method" (3) or forced diuresis. This paper reviews the pharmacology of barbiturates considering especially the usual route of detoxification and elimination and how these routes are affected by various forms of therapy. Against this background the treatment of 62 consecutive cases seen by the authors at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital is compared with the published experience of others. The authors' experience will be presented first to permit discussion of it later in the review.